Assuming the sun is not shining directly through the window, the daylight that enters a room from outside is a soft source, meaning the light comes from a broad area and it doesn't cast hard-edged shadows. In this group portrait by Peder Krøyer (1851-1909), note how the shadow cast by the vase quickly dissolves into blurry edges.
When window or doorway light falls on a floor, there's often a lot of fall-off, or weakening of the light, as you travel back from the window, as with this interior scene by Anders Zorn (1860-1920). This is because the amount of window light available is usually in proportion to how large a slice of the blue sky you can see from a given point in the room.
Even though Zorn used a very limited palette, he loved to play with the relationship between the slightly cool window light and the relatively warm interior light from incandescent or flame-based lamps.Thanks, Tim A. And thanks to BoingBoing for picking up the studio shot.
See a bunch more high-res images by Krøyer at Tim's blog.
